PHILADELPHIA—Down by a goal and facing elimination from the playoffs, the Buffalo Sabres chased the Philadelphia Flyers around for 30 seconds, trying to get the puck to allow Ryan Miller to get to the bench for an extra attacker.

Their hearts were in it, but their bodies were not.

Buffalo had rallied from last place in the Eastern Conference in February to get into an eighth-place tie with the Washington Capitals with two games left. But with Washington holding the tiebreaker, the Capitals’ win over the Florida Panthers combined with the Sabres’ 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Thursday night meant that Buffalo’s playoff dream died on the same sheet of ice where the Sabres exited the first round of last year’s playoffs after a successful rally from the depths of the standings.

“It’s embarrassing to miss the playoffs,” said Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, an assessment that coach Lindy Ruff agreed with, without using the E-word. “We have a lot of talented players, and we just couldn’t get it going early enough. You run out of time, you run out of games, and it comes down to going on a bigger tear than any team has gone on the entire year—just to make the playoffs. That’s not how you do it in this league. We got bit this year. Last year, we got away with it.”

The Sabres’ late push had everything to do with a rise in form by Miller, who had a save percentage of .899 in a first half of the season that included getting concussed on a controversial hit by Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic on Nov. 12. Since the All-Star break, Miller has stopped 93.1 percent of the shots he has faced, including 33 on Thursday. But the two goals that Miller allowed in the third period turned a 1-0 lead and a chance for the Sabres to play their way into the playoffs on Saturday into a fate-sealing defeat.

The decisive goal was indicative of the toll that the playoff chase had taken on the Sabres. At the end of a strong shift led by Drew Stafford, who was Buffalo’s most threatening and creative forward all night, only Robyn Regher was able to get back on defense when the Flyers came away with the puck and started up ice. Regher had Matt Read lined up for a check at the Buffalo blue line, but the rookie stepped lively to avoid the hit, got in alone on Miller and put home his 24th goal of the season.

“I have to win that one-on-one,” Regher said. “I end up getting beat, and it cost us the hockey game. That was the difference. I’ve got to make the play.”

It was not just one play that doomed the Sabres, though. It was the two-and-a-half months during which Buffalo failed to win back-to-back games, a 9-19-5 stretch that began with the 6-2 loss in Boston when Lucic ran into Miller after the goaltender had come well out of the crease to play a puck.

The fact that the Sabres could emerge from a slump that lasted 40 percent of the season, and still have a chance to make the playoffs with two games left, spoke to their potential, but the fact also was that they played themselves into last place before a charge that turned out to be too little, too late.

Buffalo now has missed the playoffs three of the last five seasons and has not been past the first round since 2007. Thursday night was a painful ending, but if the Sabres did not have the legs to protect a lead for 20 minutes in Game 81, what reason did they really have to believe that a playoff berth would do anything but delay their inevitable sad finish?

The problem in trying to take the next step is that the Sabres have $59.4 million already committed to 20 players next season, and it is clear after the past two seasons that even with their penchant for getting hot late in the season, the Sabres as currently constituted are not good enough to bring the Stanley Cup to western New York, as Terry Pegula stated upon buying the team would be the organization’s raison d’etre.

“We did it last year, too,” Stafford said when asked if the Sabres’ late charge had inspired confidence in next season. “Losing in the first round—yeah, we made the playoffs, and it was great. This year, not even making it, it just brings up memories that you don’t want to have. It’s never a good feeling. It doesn’t matter. We have to win. We had to win this game, and we didn’t get it done, and going into not making the playoffs, there’s nothing worse than that.”